All's fair in love and war
by ammstar11
Summary: While trying to enter an alliance with another planet to combat the Galra, one of the team is looped into a political marriage and it's up to the others to try and stall or derail the kings wedding plans while still sealing the alliance peacefully.
1. Chapter 1 Fight for the heart

**All's fair in love and war**

While trying to enter an alliance with another planet to combat the Galra, one of the team is looped into a political marriage and it's up to the others to try and stall or derail the kings wedding plans while still sealing the alliance peacefully.

(Set around the beginning of season 3 maybe?)

Quick description of the Maltakians (Just made it up, don't know if it's a real word anywhere so please just go with it) They are a somewhat tall humanoid race with reptilian features, their skin looks somewhat like scales and is patterned with yellow and blue, they have snake like eyes of various colors and they tend to keep their hair long. Their hair also comes in a variety of different colors.

They are a proud warrior race and favour demonstrations of strength over pretty words but are quite good with diplomacy.

King Thanton is young, about equal to a human in their early twenties; he has long dark blue hair that reaches just past his shoulders, green snake eyes and the standard yellow and blue Maltakian complexion. (Hope this helps)

 **Chapter 1 Fight for the heart**

Some time has passed since Voltron had taken down Zarkon but Shiro is still missing and while the team searches for him they travel from planet to planet trying to grow their alliances with other worlds to fight back against the Galra Empire that is still at large.

One such planet that they arrive on is happy to agree to an alliance if the paladins can prove themselves in a battle tournament. The planet Maltak is populated by a warrior based race and they value strong allies in combat and believe that the best way to test new allies is to enter them into a battle tournament to witness their skills firsthand.

As a show of good faith to the Maltakians the team agrees to take part as contestants in this tournament and one by one they are knocked out of the running until only Keith is left.

Each time one of them loses they are sent up into the stands where Allura and Coran sit with the King trying to discuss the forming of an alliance with Voltron.

Pidge had been the first knocked out, though she had managed to make it pretty far, her size didn't do her any favours in battle, so much for the old saying 'the bigger they are the harder they fall' unless one was to interpret 'harder' as difficult.

Hunk, bless him, had done well but like his lion speed was not on his side and though he could take a hit, he wasn't very good with close range battle and his opponent claimed the win.

Lance was still a bit miffed that he didn't get to show off much of his awesome sharpshooter skills because he was stuck with the freakin' ninja guys that he couldn't get a lock on before another was coming at him.

So there they sat in the King's royal box seat watching as Keith swung his sword every which way taking down opponent after opponent like they were nothing.

 _Stupid mullet and his stupid awesome sword skills…_ Lance thought as he pouted.

While Lance grumbles to himself the others are talking amongst themselves about how Keith is such a natural fighter and one of them makes a comment about how it's probably due to his Galran heritage and this gets the King's attention

"Galra?" he asks with a curious note to his voice.

Lance jumps in right away trying to explain. "He's not evil or anything! And he's only part Galra, maybe half! Anyway he's probably the only Galra/Human hybrid in the entire universe so I doubt there's anything for you to worry about!" Lance tries to play it cool and make it seem like it's no big deal so that the King doesn't freak out or anything.

"One of a kind huh? That's rare indeed." The King says as he leans forward a bit in his seat to continue watching the arena down below.

Lance doesn't think too much of this since the King seems calm after finding out that one of the paladins of Voltron was actually part Galra and just goes back to watching the battle just as Keith wins the final round.

Allura, wanting to be able to form the alliance with this planet waits for the last member of the team to arrive and they were all gathered around where the King was seated before asking "Alright your majesty, have we proven that we can fight alongside you against the Galra Empire?"

The King rests his head upon his hand that's propped up on the arm of his throne and smiles. "Yes I believe this can be arranged, I just require one more thing to seal the arrangement."

Allura furrows her brow but tries to smile and remain as diplomatic as possible. "And that would be your majesty?" for some reason everyone was feeling tense all of a sudden.

"A bride." The King says simply.

Everyone is shocked.

Lance starts to say that there's no way that Allura is going to agree to marry him when the King cuts him off with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Not the Princess," he points at Keith instead. "You shall be my bride!" he smiles joyfully as if the matter was settled and that the deal was already done.

This time even Lance is too shocked for words.

The first to find their voice is Keith. "What?! I can't be your bride!" he yells, feeling flustered and confused by the declaration, or was it a proposal?

"A rare specimen like yourself is definitely worthy of becoming my bride! Not to mention what a great warrior you have proven yourself to be fighting against the best soldiers we have to offer!" the King said as if thinking that Keith's protests were due to feeling inferior or unworthy because he was an outsider, half-bread, or commoner.

"That's not what I meant!" Keith says angrily.

The others try to make the King reconsider.

"Keith can't marry you!" Hunk yells.

"We didn't sign up for this!" Pidge says.

"King Thanton Please reconsider your conditions." Allura tries.

But he seems deadest on his decision. "It's decided! Guards, show our guests to their quarters. And have my bride to be taken to the cleansing room, everything must be prepared immediately!"

Everyone is surrounded by guards and Keith is separated from the others, he's too exhausted from the tournament to put up much of a fight. The others aren't having much luck either.

…

Not long after being escorted to their _accommodations_ the team minus Keith is joined once more by King Thanton to further discuss the alliance with Voltron.

"Hello again honored guests! Shall we go over the treaty now that we've settled things?" he asked with a huge smile on his face as he entered the spacious room that would have been quite comfortable under different circumstances.

"About that, please understand your majesty that we can't simply let you just marry Keith." Allura tried once again to try and dissuade him but still he continued to insist on the marriage.

"What better way to form an alliance than to have such a strong warrior joined in holy matrimony with myself?" King Thanton asked.

"No, you see back on our planet you can't just say you're going to marry someone and that's it, there are specific rules, uh rituals if you will." Pidge said.

To halt the ceremony the paladins play along and tell the King that he can't just simply marry Keith; there are specific _rituals_ that must be met that are traditional customs on Earth. If they are not met then people can't be legally wed.

King Thanton is all for making this a binding marriage so he agrees to hear them out in order to make this official.

The paladins then end up coming up with any random marriage rituals that they know of, just anything to make this as complicated as possible.

"And so what are these rituals that we must abide by to make this marriage binding?" King Thanton asked.

"The bride is supposed to wear white." Lance pipes up with the first thing that comes to mind.

Pidge and Hunk are standing in the background whispering to each other. "Isn't that supposed to be for virgins?" Pidge asked.

"Is Keith a virgin?" Hunk asked back.

"I'm not asking, you ask." Pidge said.

"I'm not asking, you ask him. You thought of it." Hunk retorted.

King Thanton was watching them with great interest it seemed.

"Shut up you two, you're not helping!" Lance shrieked turning to them.

"Anyway, if the person or people getting married are a part of the military or something then they have a special uniform to wear that they get married in." Lance says thinking back to the dress code part of weddings.

"Of course Keith doesn't have an outfit like that, but then again since we're the paladins of Voltron I guess our armor works for that. Plus it is mostly white." Hunk put in, seemingly thinking out loud.

"Really not helping Hunk!" Lance hissed shooting him a glare.

"Oops." Hunk said sheepishly.

"The bride is supposed to be given away by their father, as a symbol of entering into a new stage of life. Of course Keith is an orphan and doesn't have any family to give him away." Pidge added.

"Well Shiro was kind of like his brother, have you ever seen them together? I called them the Broganes in my head, but Shiro is still missing. Oh and there's Kolivan from the blade of Marmora, he might be like Keith's uncle or grandpa or something. Also there's Coran who's kind of like an uncle for all of us in the castle… sorry." Hunk notices his friends all glaring at him. "Sorry I just get really excited about weddings!"

Even Coran seems on the spot about what to do since he doesn't know much about Earth customs in general.

"And there's the whole 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' tradition! We don't exactly have anything old with us that Keith could use." Lance added as another tradition popped into his head.

"Well there is his kn-"

Pidge covers Hunk's mouth to shut him up.

"Something new has to mean something important to him, something borrowed should come from someone close to him, and as for something blue well, I don't know." Lance said with a shrug as he listed them off.

King Thanton seemed to think this over though Lance wasn't sure he was buying it so he decided to add more.

"Anyway there's also the fact that this is so rushed and definitely doesn't qualify as consensual on Keith's part, he has to agree to marry you or it can't happen. Those are the rules of Earth marriages."

"Can't I just order him to agree? I'm the King after all." King Thanton asked and Lance was sure he wasn't kidding.

"NO!" they all say together.

"On Earth we usually date first before getting engaged and then married." Lance said.

"Although in some cultures they do have arranged marriages for political reasons…" Pidge mutters under her breath.

But the King still heard her.

Lance was really getting annoyed with how good this guy's hearing was.

"Thanks Pidge…" Lance mutters back.

"But even in those situations they usually have an out clause, so again if he doesn't consent then it won't happen." Pidge added to her earlier statement.

"Yes, thank you Pidge!" Lance said, this time meaning it.

"But how do I get him to say yes?" King Thanton asked, really intrigued by how complicated these human marriages were but still wanting to go through with it.

"Well courting usually works." Hunk said since Pidge was no longer preventing him from speaking.

"Hunk!" Lance snapped at the yellow paladin.

The King ignored the two of them and chose to focus on Pidge instead. "How does this courting work?"

Pidge adjusted her glasses and tried to ignore the dirty looks Lance was shooting her way. "Courtship, or dating as we know it, is when a couple tries to woo each other or just grow closer romantically and once they agree that they are for sure in love then they agree to get married."

Lance is panicking because he's running out of ideas to stall this.

Allura sees this and decides to add something as well. "Of course there's still the possibility of a rivalry, in those cases the subject must choose between the two sides to see who they will be with. It was quite common on Altea." She winks at Lance.

"Alright, I see no reason to deny your traditions. After all, I'm sure that in the end my bride will choose me." King Thanton says with full confidence that annoyed Lance beyond reason.

"What if Keith doesn't choose you though?" Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to mouth off to the King of a planet that you wanted to form an alliance with but this guy was so, so… Lance just didn't like how he talked about Keith okay?!

"Oh I'm sure he will. I'm quite the charmer after all." King Thanton said with a cocky smile that really irked Lance.

"Yeah? Well so am I!" Lance shouted feeling really irritated now.

King Thanton looked Lance up and down to study him but seemed to dismiss any possibility of threat. "I see no reason to worry." he smirks and now Lance is really getting mad.

"It's settled then, Lance will compete with your majesty for the affections of Keith! And come what may, we are still going to agree to this treaty, is it a deal?" Allura asked in as best the political manner she could, given their situation.

Lance turned to her with his jaw almost hitting the floor. "What?!"

"It's a deal! You shall all be honored guests at our wedding!" the King said before walking away, clearly believing that he would be the one who wins over Keith.

 **Look I know next to nothing about weddings so I'm just pulling things from thin air here, anyway as you can see this is going to be Klance mainly with the whole OC trying to win Keith over and all that. Dear God where did this idea even come from I can't remember anymore, this has been sitting on my flashdrive as a 2000+ idea for months now and I'm just now getting to it because this is how my brain works...**

 **Please let me know what you think, chapter 2 might be ready soon but then again never believe me when I say soon because I have a horrifically bad sense of time... Looking forward to hearing from you!**

 **Okay since I posted this at like 4 a.m. there were some things I needed to fix but hopefully it's all good now!**

 **I have a drawing of King Thanton I made posted on my tumblr if you want to check it out it's Fangirl-overload13**


	2. Chapter 2 Go for it Romeo

**Chapter 2 Go for it Romeo**

"WHAT THE QUIZNAK JUST HAPPENED?!" Lance yells once they are alone in the room again.

"You just volunteered to compete to win Keith as your bride." Pidge said with a smirk.

 _Not helping…_ Lance thought. "Why me though?" he asked incredulously still trying to figure out what all just happened after everything they tried to do to make this marriage impossible. How was it that he was now all that stood in the way of Keith and the sound of wedding bells?

"Well you did basically just volunteer like I said, by challenging the King. Besides Keith and Allura clearly have nothing between them romantically, I'm too young to get married and I'm not into Keith thanks, and like Hunk mentioned, Coran's like everyone's uncle so he's out too, plus Hunk already has Shey." Pidge added.

"Hey! Wait, do you really think. I mean um ahahha…." Hunk pipped up and blushed as he let out a nervous laugh.

Lance ignored Hunk trying to wrap his mind around his feelings for his rock girlfriend and focused on Pidge. "But what am I supposed to do? Keith and I are rivals, we practically hate each other!" Lance flailed his arms as if to get his distress across to his friend.

Pidge rolled her eyes at his dramatic antics. "No you don't."

"I-" Lance tries to fight some more but is at a loss. "Fine I don't actually hate him. So what am I supposed to do to make sure that mullet doesn't end up marrying King Playboy here?" Lance asked leaning back against the wall behind him with his arms crossed over his chest.

Allura is confused by the strange term. "Playboy?"

Pidge just waves the question off and focuses on Lance again. "You know Keith; you've got the advantage here. Besides it's not like you actually have to get married, we're just trying to make sure that Keith doesn't marry the king and we still get our alliance formed."

This seemed to calm Lance down at last. "Okay, so who's going to tell Mullet about all this?" Lance asked looking around.

Allura sighed and walked towards the door. "I'll do it. Maybe I can help keep Keith calm about all this."

They all thought that this was a long shot but no one argued.

…

Allura left the guest wing they had been taken to and goes to the room where Keith is after asking for directions and Knocks on the door.

Keith opens the door and Allura sees that he is wearing what appears to be local clothing. The outfit resembles a loose fitted tunic and tights or leggings and is belted at the waist.

"Is that what they gave you to wear? I thought for sure that it would be more… ceremonial." She asks with a raised brow.

Keith looks away and crosses his arms. "I think they were trying to get me to wear a dress, I refused, but they had already taken my clothes after forcing me into a bath so this was what I got instead." He huffed in annoyance.

Allura puts a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing and to hide the grin that's spreading across her face at the image of Keith being given some kind of wedding gown. "I-is that so?" she clears her throat before continuing with what she came here for. "Well I have some news for you regarding this marriage…"

This gets Keith's full attention. "What is it?"

"Well um you see we tried to get the King to reconsider."

Keith looks hopeful for a tick.

"But that didn't work,"

His face fell.

"The others managed to stall by educating the King on Earthly customs for marriage." she said to try and explain what happened in the other room though she didn't fully understand it herself.

Keith looks confused by this.

"And in order to stall the wedding they told him that it was required for the two of you to date first."

Keith's jaw dropped. "What?!"

Allura tries her best to placate him. "I also, um, helped at this point, I told him that there's a possibility of a romantic rivalry and that you would then need to choose between the two suiters to decide whom you are to marry." She tried to grin at him but it wasn't working.

Keith still looked pretty worried. "I don't think I like where this is going…" he said.

"As Pidge put it, Lance volunteered to play role of the romantic rival when he basically challenged the King, so now you are to go on dates with the two of them and then decide which one you will marry!" Allura tried to sound excited and cheerful but it clearly wasn't working.

Keith sputtered at that. "L-L-Lance?!" his face went bright red; so much so you'd think he was trying to become the red lion that he piloted.

"Well as I said, we tried to explain Earth wedding rituals to King Thanton and Lance was very helpful in that regard but nothing the others came up with seemed to bother the King or deter him so I thought I'd help by saying that it was customary on Altea to compete for the hand of another with a romantic rival. Lance had been quite obvious with his displeasure whenever his majesty spoke of marrying you so when Lance had his little outburst we kind of played it to our advantage as best we could." She explained.

Keith was just as flustered as Lance had been when they had sealed the deal with the King; clearly this wasn't something that either of them had imagined coming to pass.

Keith leaned against the door frame with his head in his hands.

Allura tried to comfort him. "We told his majesty that the marriage could not take place if you did not wish for it to, so you don't have to worry about that right now. Unfortunately we will probably be stuck here until you are able to make your decision."

Keith glanced at her for a moment. "Can't I just say that I… uh that I pick Lance and be done with this?" he asked.

"I highly doubt it; I don't think King Thanton is willing to let this go without at least trying. The Maltakians are a proud race and take competition very seriously so he'll want to see this through to the end." she said with a sigh.

"Great… so what exactly am I supposed to do then?" Keith asked crossing his arms once more.

Before Allura could reply a soldier approached them and bowed respectfully before speaking. "Honored guests; the King requests your presence in the dining hall immediately. I shall escort you there."

Allura did her best to smile warmly to the soldier. "Very well."

Keith reluctantly stepped out of the room and the two of them followed their escort to the dining hall where the others were already waiting for them, as well as King Thanton who smiled broadly as they entered the room.

"Ah that Maltakian attire suites you beautifully!" he said as Keith approaches the table after the soldier showed him to his seat.

"Uh thanks…" Keith said as he sat down.

Lance had a look of irritation on his face and leaned over the table as he spoke. "Well I think he looked better in the paladin armor." he said as he glared at King Thanton who paid him no mind.

Allura caught the slight blush on Keith's face though; she turned to Pidge who sat next to her for any information on the situation. "So what did I miss?"

Pidge glanced over in Lance's direction and watched as he stared daggers at King Thanton from his seat next to Keith who was caught between the two. "Well when we were summoned to the dining hall we greeted the King and he insisted that we call him by his name and not his title and then asked more about courtship before he and Lance kind of just went back and forth about who Keith would choose and then you guys were called in." she said as they watched Lance slump back in his chair across the table.

The seating order had Thanton at the head of the table while Keith sat to his right with Lance next to him and Coran beside him, Allura was on the left hand side and Pidge was next to her with Hunk after that.

…

Lance was very thrilled with the seating arrangements because he was next to Keith and could keep an eye on King Playboy to make sure he didn't try anything but had to play along with this whole 'suiter' thing to keep King Playboy here from _winning_ Keith's heart, like that would ever happen but boy was he trying and every word out of his mouth left Lance wanting to roll his eyes, like come on man that's not how you sweet talk someone! But he had to bite his tongue to keep from showing him how it was done because come on this was _Keith_!

"I must say, the cleansing room did wonders for you, you were quiet impressive before but now you're simply captivating." Thanton said as he leaned on his hand propped on the table as he gazed at Keith.

Lance actually scoffed. "Oh please, besides he looks much better when he's actually dressed comfortably not all gussied up like some medieval Ken doll." Lance said as he picked up his cup to drink some water. He didn't see Keith glance over at him.

"I don't really know what you just said but I'm sure _Keith_ would look good in any attire." Thanton said winking at Keith and Lance nearly choked on his water.

Oh so it's going to be like that huh? Well two can play this game!

"Keith can pull off any look he likes; he's got his own style though that suits him just fine and I think he should stick with it." Lance said as coolly as he could. To be quite honest he really enjoyed knowing that Thanton had yet to see Keith in his everyday clothes and could only guess at what that might look like. Let him keep guessing.

Keith was practically gaping at him since Lance was usually telling him that he dressed like some time-traveler that got lost in a department store clearance sale rack. But he was being completely honest now, Keith had his own style and it really did work for him. Mullet and all.

"Your companions have explained your planet's courtship customs to me and I have planned a wonderful evening for the two of us and I must say it's quite impressive." He flashed a charming smile Keith's way.

Keith looked at the others across the table from him with a raised brow questioning them silently about what courtship customs he was referring to.

"For example I was told that many Earthlings prefer a quiet stroll through a garden or by water in the moonlight and I must admit there is some appeal in that so I will be leading you through the royal gardens to the pools to enjoy the night sky."

Oooh this guy was good and Lance was really steamed about it. "Well I can come up with a totally awesome date too!" Lance said defiantly and felt his face explode with heat at the word _date_.

"Of course, but I'm sure it doesn't matter because in the end you'll see that I'm the clear choice. Everyone can see that." Thanton said sitting up in his chair as their dinner arrived.

Lance could feel his eye twitch in annoyance by how conceited this guy was. "You do know that there's a really good chance that not everyone in the universe is going to like you right?"

Thanton smirked at that. "It's crossed my mind a time or two but then I remember that I'm amazing and laugh about how silly it was to think something like that!" he let out a laugh before beginning to eat his own dinner.

…

Hunk leaned over and whispered to Pidge. "I think these guys shop for their confidence at the same place."

Pidge shook her head as she inspected her plate. "Actually I think Lance shops at the costume store while this guy goes for Gucci."

Allura shot them a confused look as she sat quietly and watched the way Keith reacted to the 'courtship' he was now the recipient of.

At some point while she was talking to Keith about the little arrangement they had come to with Thanton about the alliance, the others had explained dates to him. They actually seemed similar to things they would have done on Altea.

After dinner Coran was to go along with Keith and Thanton on their date, as a chaperone was required to be there to monitor dates as Pidge had explained.

Once the three of them had left for the gardens Allura had asked for more information on these dating customs and Pidge admitted that those sorts of things were more outdated or precautionary measures that no one really followed anymore except for kids or really traditional families.

"It was really just an excuse to have someone tail them and report back later about how things went; besides I think Coran is enjoying his role as honorary uncle."

She then turned her focus to Lance who hadn't stopped pacing since they had arrived back to the guest wing. "As for you, we still need to put together some kind of 'Totally awesome date' for you and Keith for tomorrow." She said using Lance's own words from earlier. "Come on Romeo, we need to get you your Juliette."

"Actually I think something like Bassanio and Portia from the merchant of Venice or Viola and Duke Orsino or Olivia and Sebastian from Twelfth night would be a better analogy, at least they got together and lived happily ever after, Romeo and Juliette died before they could actually get married." Hunk said sitting cross legged on the rug nearby watching his best friend pace around.

"Fine whatever, the point is we don't want Keith to somehow fall for King Charming." Pidge said.

"Oh come on, I mean how the heck could Keith ever fall for a guy like that!" Lance asked, stopping his pacing and threw his arms up into the air. "Like come on, all he does is talk about how great he is like he's the universe's gift to every living thing out there!" he scoffed. "All that bravado about how he's so great just because he's a King of a planet, big deal. All he does is flirt and talk about himself!"

Allura was confused now, that seemed to just about sum up how Lance acted since she'd met him. She even said as much to Pidge in a hushed tone as Hunk tried to placate Lance.

"Well you see Lance actually just likes to flirt, he'd sooner take a bullet for someone than truly believe that he was hand made by God just to impress people, I actually think it's his own way to keep himself from being hurt, if he comes on too strong from the start people will either say no thanks or they'll laugh it off and think of him as the loveable goofball guy that doesn't like to take life seriously, but truth be told he cares way too much about what people think and would do anything to see someone he cares about happy."

Allura had never thought of it like that, now that she thought about it Pidge did have a point. She'd seen time and time again how willing Lance was to make someone happy with his antics even if they didn't reciprocate his apparent feelings.

"Lance may act like a flirtatious goofball but he really doesn't want to see anyone get hurt or do something against their will, like Keith having to get married to some alien King when he's never shown any really obvious signs of liking anyone before, though if you ask me given time I think there could be something there. Not between Keith and Thanton I mean, Keith just seems like the type to like to take things slow and grow to like someone, so honestly my gac is on Lance."

Allura sat back and quietly observed Lance planning something 'totally awesome' with Hunk and thought about just how emotionally complex humans could be, this was going to be an interesting experience for them all she was sure.

 **I honestly meant for this story to be funny and lead to lovey dovey stuff but the more I wright the deeper it gets, either it's my emo side or the Langst getting to me but this is getting deep.**

 **Anyway I think this is mainly going to be Lance, Allura, Keith, and Thanton's POV. Lance discovering his feelings, Keith growing in love, Thanton totally captivated, and Allura as the observer while we get input from the others to kinda just explain things.**

 **Please let me know what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3 Take your breath away

**Chapter 3 Take your breath away**

When the Yellow and Green paladins had supplied dating etiquette and standards before the princess and Keith had arrived Thanton already had the perfect setting in mind.

He was sure it was far superior to anything the blue paladin -or Lance rather, would ever dream of concocting considering they were currently on Maltalk and Thanton knew more about the planet and what it had to offer than any outsider could ever hope to.

Thanton was very pleased with himself. Despite how strange these earth courtship customs were he could tell he had made the right choice of venue for this _date_ as it was called. He had noticed the irritation on Lance's face when he had mentioned what he had planned for tonight and from the looks of things Keith was quite impressed so far.

The Maltakians knew about the serene beauty of the pools but outsiders were always awestruck when they first lay eyes on them and Keith was no exception, even the Altean seemed impressed by the breath taking beauty they had to offer.

The sparkling pink water reflected the light of the moons and glistened with the color of the mineral deposits that lay at the bottoms of the pools, each looked like a shimmering jewel in its own right but when the gentle breeze stirred the surface the light danced as though it held a life of its own. The night of a full moon was the perfect time to view the pools so he knew he was sure to impress Keith this night.

Thanton smiled to himself as he tried to picture what Keith would look like dressed up for their wedding. Perhaps there was a way to incorporate Maltalkian attire with the Earth customs, after all Keith deserved finer things than just his everyday uniform for such a joyous occasion.

His smile grew again as he turned and saw the way Keith's eyes shone as he took in the sight of the water before him.

"It is truly a breath taking view, is it not?"

Keith looked up at him almost as though he had been startled out of a dream but recovered quickly enough to nod and stammer out a reply. "Huh? oh uh yeah. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. It's really beautiful."

Thanton took great pride in that.

…

Allura observed from the sidelines as Lance and Hunk went over ideas for Lance's "totally awesome date" plans, she's intrigued by the amount of effort he's putting in. Pidge is sitting close by her so Allura turns to ask her about it.

"I always have been confused by the relationship between Lance and Keith, they're almost always bickering so why is Lance putting so much effort in for a date that he didn't want to begin with?" she asked puzzled by the strange behavior being exhibited by their teammate.

Pidge shrugged. "Lance is really competitive by nature and despite all of the arguing between them Lance does see Keith as a friend and doesn't want to see him uncomfortable by the whole 'date' thing so he's trying to come up with things that Keith would be happy with."

Allura still didn't fully understand but she could respect Lance's efforts to make Keith as comfortable in this messed up situation that they now found themselves in.

…

Lance knew that he had a better shot of impressing Keith based in the fact that he actually knew him as a person but he needed more to go on, he knew that Keith liked the outdoors and that really annoyed him because the stupid playboy King had chosen a great outdoor location for his date with Keith, and Lance knew that Keith like to swim and just liked water in general which was ironic considering he's the red paladin, but the pools that the King had mentioned had seemed like a great and ideal way to impress Keith and Lance was driving himself crazy trying to think of a way to out do that!

How was he supposed to contend with someone on their home turf?! How was he supposed to find the perfect way to sweep Keith off of his feet and woo him on some alien planet he knew absolutely nothing about?! What did he get himself into? Better yet what had his so called friends gotten him into?

Why had Allura insisted that he could go and be the perfect date for Keith?! They weren't that close, not really, they were hardly even friends! Well okay maybe they were friends but could he really go on a date with him? This was Keith they were talking about for crying out loud!

Could he win his heart even if it was faked?

Could he really do something totally romantic for his heated rival?

They were supposed to be neck and neck not necking!

Oh god what was he thinking?! No one had said anything about making out but now his mind was on it!

What if King playboy tried something?

Would he put his hands on Keith?

Would he try to kiss him or something?

Would Keith let him?

What was he supposed to do?!

He had no idea how to focus on coming up with the perfect date, all he knew was the Castle of Lions and what was he supposed to do there when it was basically their home anyway?

It's not like he could try Netflix and chill or something stupid like that, not like he thought Keith even knew what that was but still… Would Pidge have something like a movie on her computer? Did the Alteans have movies?

They could try the Altean pool again but after what happened last time did he really want to risk it? Well they weren't running from the Galra this time and had full power but still…

Or they could have Hunk cook a really great meal! Keith loved Hunk's cooking!

Would Keith want to train or something? He did seem caught up on the idea of that bonding moment from when the Galra had attacked the castle.

How could he bring that up though?

He had said that he didn't remember it and that had upset Keith and if he mentioned it now he might just make things worse. Okay so maybe training was out.

Could they go exploring? Did that seem too much like what they did as paladins?

Maybe they could race their lions! He and Keith had a lot of races and even though he knew that the red lion was way faster he still felt the need to try again and again to compete.

"Okay so what if I got you to whip up something for a late night meal or snack kind of thing for the two of us or for whenever we're going to do this and you can make all of those awesome foods that Keith likes and then I can take him flying in our lions and we can explore around the sky so we don't draw too much attention to ourselves but still spend some quality time together?" Lance tried to filter out his frantic thoughts into some semblance of a date plan.

"You mean like _Bonding_ time?" Hunk asked wiggling his eyebrows at his best friend.

Lance pointed an accusatory finger at his friend. "Don't you dare utter the words 'Bonding moment' or I will… I will... Throw you out of my lion again!"

"You know honestly after all that's happened, that's not all that scary anymore." Hunk said pretending to ponder Lance's empty threat.

"Right. Just please don't say anything that might upset him. I really want him to be able to have a great time and just have fun for once instead of worrying about anything." Lance said defeated but his voice held so much sincerity that Hunk dropped his little teasing act.

"Alright that's a good idea. So what were you thinking exactly?" Hunk asked wondering how he could possibly put his culinary skills to work helping out his friends.

"Okay so I don't know what it's called but you know that mushy paste that's kinda sour and goes grate with that bread stuff you made awhile back?" Lance asked putting an arm around Hunk and turning them towards the castle where they could go through the kitchen and come up with a meal plan.

"Ooh yeah I remember that, that was great." Hunk said happily thinking back to one of his more recent creations.

"Well I was thinking we could pair that with that noodle like dish you had with the almost sweet yet savory combo with just a kick of spicy at the end." Lance was finally getting some of the details worked out even if it was just what they would have to eat, but hey best way to the heart is through the stomach right? As far as Hunk's cooking was concerned that was absolutely true.

"Oh this'll be good." Hunk said as he pictured the meal plan coming together.

This was definitely going to work!

 **Okay this took some time even though I had most of this written for a while now I wasn't sure if I wanted it all in one chapter or not but decided to go with that plan anyway.**

 **Thanton really does think he's going to win and see's no possible way he wouldn't.**

 **Allura feels bad for dumping this on Lance and is kind of confused by how serious he's taking this.**

 **Lance is really freaking out inside his head so everything is long and rushed or at least that was what I was going for so please let me know if I didn't get it right.**

 **I liked how Hunk and Pidge were back and forth about the whole "Girlfriend" thing back in season 1 so I thought I'd bring in some more of that teasing with Hunk trying to get a rise out of Lance and make him flustered but Lance is being completely serious right now so Hunk drops it and gets right back to helping his friends!**

 **Also I love Hunk's cooking skills and wanted to bring that into play.**

 **See you guys again when my brain works!**

 **Ammstar out!**


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